


Strawberry Tarts

by carrotsblythe



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, and ruby is precious as always, anne is confused, diana ships it so hard, gilbert is jealous, i crave more school scenes, updated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 21:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15804978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrotsblythe/pseuds/carrotsblythe
Summary: Anne refuses to take part in another game of Spin the Bottle.And naturally, so does Gilbert.





	Strawberry Tarts

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few more of these saved so I might upload more? Idk but they're fun to write and I have a lot of ideas.

Ever since Gilbert had decided to stay in school for the time being, it meant he no longer had to arrive at school early for extra lessons with Miss Stacy. He had caught up with the rest of the class so quickly that it would not have been worth doing anyway. Still, he spent his lunchtimes studying books lent to him by Doctor Ward in the classroom, opposite from where the girls sat huddled in the corner. 

 

Ruby was ecstatic about the new seating arrangements. That much was clear to anyone who was within earshot of her during it, and heard her whisper only of how handsome Gilbert Blythe looked when he was concentrating. Or those who saw her gaze longingly in his direction for such long periods that he often had to look up and give her a half-smile and a nod so he could continue to study in peace.

 

Anne, however, was not so pleased.

 

She did not dislike it, per se, but she certainly did not enjoy the situation to Ruby's extent. Anne is completely impartial to Gilbert Blythe, and could not possibly care less as to where he chose to spend his lunchtimes. The problem was that she felt for some bizarre reason that she had to speak very quietly and consciously all the time. For someone who naturally spoke very loudly and very often, about nothing in particular and also and the most embarrassing and shameful subjects, it was somewhat of a dilemma. 

 

Diana certainly noticed the change in Anne during lunch. That's not to say that the other girls did not notice a shift in the usual play out of lunchtime, though they never managed to pin it down to Anne. It was far too quiet without her interrupting every two minutes with a (Josie would say silly) question about how things work in society. The lack of Anne's communication frequently led to Josie having free rein of conversation topics, as no one else was brave enough to dare change to subject. 

 

"Gilbert sure looks handsome today, doesn't he Ruby?" Diana grinned, as he sat at his usual desk pouring over a new medical book. 

 

"He  _always_ looks handsome, Diana, only he got a haircut and it does suit him. I didn't think he could look any more handsome!" Ruby said dreamily. "I really hope he can't hear anything we're saying," she added in a whisper, glancing nervously in his direction. "I'd never be able to look him in eye again if he was listening,"

 

Gilbert was not listening. The only time he ever paid the slightest bit of attention to the girls in the corner was if they mentioned anything involving Cole Mackenzie. 

 

"I have an idea," Josie said mischievously, "We should begin another game of Spin the Bottle. Then you could kiss Gilbert and he'd fall madly in love with you,"

 

Anne was struck with fear by this proposal. Spin the Bottle was the most horrible form of torture that Josie Pye had ever pulled out of her dark imagination. She knew that Josie was only suggesting the game in order to ridicule Anne, something she had not had the opportunity to do in a while since she had been very quiet recently, and most insults arose from the "dumb" things she said. Josie had recently been sticking to red-headed and freckle based mockery, as she felt quite sure that if Gilbert  _were_ to be listening that any orphan material would offend him too now that his father had died. 

 

Anne was not upset that Ruby could kiss Gilbert. Gilbert can kiss anyone he well pleases. See if she cares. She will not. 

 

"But what if the bottle doesn't land on him?" Ruby asked. 

 

"Then he will be so overcome with jealousy that he will pick a fight with whoever you kiss instead. Romantic, see? It's a win-win situation." Josie said. "Call in the boys, and we'll play in the supply room." 

 

Jane went to call on her brother and the rest of the boys, where they rather enthusiastically agreed to play, whilst the girls moved their things and cleared space for a circle in the supply room. All except Anne, who remained firmly seated on the floor.

 

"I am  _not_ subjecting myself to Josie's torture again, Diana, I just can't. Cole isn't here to rescue me this time and I couldn't possibly face it alone. _Not_ after the humiliation of last time, I couldn't possibly bear it. Go and play without me, Diana, I know you enjoyed it. I could tell by the way you blushed every time you saw Moody for weeks!" Anne insisted. 

 

"But I would feel awful about leaving you here all by yourself," said Diana. She rummaged around in her basket, and pulled out two strawberry tarts wrapped in lace handkerchiefs that she had been meaning to share with the girls. 

 

"I suppose we won't be able to eat these if we play, so you can have them both. I won't tell, I promise," Diana said solemnly, and left to join the others. 

 

"Say hello to Moody for me!" Anne called after her teasingly, and Diana blushed bright red and shot Anne a glaring look which made her laugh. 

 

* * *

 

Ruby stood in front of Gilbert's desk, where he was taking notes on human anatomy. He did not seem to acknowledge her presence , so she forcefully cleared her throat which made him look up.

 

"Um... hello, Ruby," he said. 

 

"Hello, Gilbert," she began nervously. "We are about to begin a game of Spin the Bottle, would you like to join us?"

 

He tapped the cover of his book and shook his head. "I'm sorry Ruby, but I promised I would return this book by Saturday and I am only halfway through," 

 

Ruby tried her hardest not to break down in tears, remembering what Josie said about making him jealous. It was quite a great achievement that she managed to retain her composure. 

 

"That's alright, I'm sure there are  _plenty_ of other boys who would love to play. Goodbye, Gilbert." she said, and left to join Diana. 

 

Gilbert was rather confused over Ruby's confidence and apparent lack on interest in him, but he could not honestly say that it bothered him. 

 

The classroom was unusually quiet when everybody had left to go to the supply room. Although, not  _everybody_ was playing, for Gilbert knew without looking that Anne was not joining the others for Spin the Bottle. He had been listening to the girls' conversations ever since he had heard Cole's name. He was dying to know what he had done to "rescue" Anne. He knew that they had a good relationship, he had noticed that much for the short time they were both in school together, but he could never imagining Cole doing something heroic. 

 

He was not jealous of their relationship. Definitely not.  

 

He peered over his book, which he had actually read twice over and there was no deadline to return it (not that he would ever tell Ruby that) to watch what Anne was doing. He imagined that she might be lonely, since none of the other girls had offered to stay behind with her. She sat on a desk beside the window, and was gazing out wistfully, whilst nibbling absentmindedly on a strawberry tart. Gilbert thought she looked a little downcast. Her eyebrows were pulled together and she looked down sadly and sighed, before repositioning the chair slightly and looking out again. 

 

Gilbert could not bear to think of Anne as sad. He had made her terribly upset on the first day they met, and since then, every single time she looked even remotely like something was bothering her, he was determined to find out what it was, because he always had a paranoid feeling it was something he had done. 

 

"Hey, Anne," he called, trying not think of similar (failed) attempt to catch her attention. She turned around to look questioningly at him. 

 

"Are you alright?" he asked timidly. 

 

Gilbert was rather afraid that any indication that something  _could_ upset her would offend her terribly. But there was, in his eyes at least, a friendship between them, and he felt almost completely sure that there was nothing wrong about asking a friend if they were okay. Right?

 

"I'm fine," she said simply, though Gilbert was not sure. 

 

"I'm not upset," she assured, sensing that he was not convinced. "Only I was busy imagining how  _awful_ it would be if there were no flowers in the whole world. I think it would be so colourless, and spring would be ever so dull without all of the young buds popping open. Perhaps there would be something even more beautiful that flowers in their place, but I don't think such a thing exists, or even if it did, I still don't think it would be able to replace to loss."

 

Gilbert could find no suitable word to respond to this queer speech, but Anne had not yet turned away, and was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something. It was not often Gilbert had a conversation with Anne, even rarer was she willing to start one, so he made the decision to keep it going, whatever it took. 

 

"So, um, are you not playing?" he asked, pointing to the supply room where a burst of cheering and applause had just broken out. 

 

"Absolutely not. I'm not sure I could bear to play that malicious form of torture Josie Pye calls a  _game_ again." pronounced Anne dramatically. "It would surely be even worse this time around, since she's so determined to make everybody hate me.  _And_ Cole isn't here to save me this time, so when Josie would inevitably force me into spinning I would be subject to another round of her teasing for months on end,"

 

"Save you?" Gilbert asked. He  _had_ to know what Cole had done now that she had mentioned it. They had seemed so friendly at school, and he watched her (and Diana and Ruby) weep for a whole train journey to Avonlea when Cole (for reasons unknown to Gilbert) did not get on and decided to stay with Diana's aunt. He was not aware that so many tears could come out of such a small person all at once. He hated to think that he had made her cry like that. He never seen her do it, of course, but he had overheard Mrs Rachel Lynde say that she would not leave her room in Green Gables for several days on account of being in the "depths of despair" and hardly ate for a week. 

 

"Well, when we last played Josie made me spin, but everybody refused to kiss me, which gave her all of the teasing material she needed for a year, of course. But then Cole volunteered to kiss me, not because he  _wanted_ to, of course, because I can understand that no one would  _want_ to kiss me, but he understands how awful it is to be made fun of so I suppose he felt a bit sorry for me. And then Billy Andrews got everybody to start chanting "kiss, freaks, kiss!" so I did, though I didn't really want to either, but I would shoot myself in both feet and never walk again before I would let Billy get the upper hand over Cole or me. I must admit, it was rather hilarious to see the look on Josie's face afterwards because she was  _dead gone_ on Cole and she detests me."

 

Anne was surprised at herself for confessing so readily to Gilbert. Her imagination could never have believed she would be telling him her most embarrassing stories. Was that not the reason she had been so quiet the last few weeks? But he was such a good listener, and so easy to talk to, that it just  _fell out_. 

 

 _Besides_ , she thought, _someone would have told him about it anyway_.

 

"Josie Pye and Billy Andrews are easily the most abhorrent people I will ever have the misfortune to meet." Gilbert said. He was silently raging at Billy Andrews. He  _knew_ that something was bound to happen again. Billy was never one to do something after only being told once, but he had never expected anything so despicable. And Josie Pye too! If he had been brought up with a shred less decency he would have stormed into the supply room and smacked her across the face in front of everyone. 

 

"I think if they were to ever get married," Anne began. "That their children would be so cruel that even they wouldn't like them." 

 

They both chuckled at this, as it was certainly a vision to imagine them ganging up on people in marriage. Anne found it was easy to laugh with Gilbert, and much to her thirteen-year-old self's disgust, easy to like him too. 

 

"Would you like a strawberry tart?" Anne asked, holding out the treat. 

 

Gilbert thought harder about this than anybody really should have. On one hand, if he accepted she might be disappointed as she would not be able to eat it herself (not that Gilbert thought that she was greedy). On the other hand, if he rejected she might be so offended that she would never speak to him again. He decided that the risk of refusing was far too great. 

 

"Of course," he said. "I'd love one." 

 

Anne stood up from the desk beside the window and brought the tart over to the opposite side of the classroom, and placed it on Gilbert's desk. He had expected her to return to her own desk, but instead she sat on the desk in front of him, and turned backwards so that she was facing him. Gilbert was not entirely sure what to make of it. She had never expressed any desire to spend any time with him in such close proximity before. There was a desk between them, sure, but to Gilbert that was about as good as touching her. But what did it mean to Anne? He decided that ignoring it completely was probably the safest option. 

 

"These are really good!" Gilbert said, taking a bite out of the strawberry tart. 

 

"They're Diana's. Diana is a brilliant cook. Mr Dunl-  _someone_ was teaching me to bake, but I never expect to be as good as her." Anne did not want to delve into the Avonlea gold scandal with Gilbert. If they were to talk face-to-face about their foreign correspondence she felt she might die from embarrassment. 

 

Though what was embarrassing about an unromantical letter regarding the possibility of gold on a friend's land?

 

"I think I'd make a terrible doctor," Anne said quickly, trying to change the subject. "I would get much too inventive with the diagnosis and end up frightening half of my patients to death,"

 

Gilbert shook his head. "I'm sure that's not true. I've heard you're very good with croup,"

 

"Anyone who had looked after the Hammond's children would know what to do. They were ill constantly. Imagine having three sets of twins!"

 

Gilbert felt very sorry for Anne all of a sudden. She had cared for someone else's children, only to be treated as a slave and abandoned at the earliest convenience. If all of that was not enough, she was harassed and bullied every day in school too! Anne was the most interesting person that ever lived, Gilbert thought, and so sweet and kind-hearted too, even after everything she had been through. How could anybody  _not_ fall in love with her?

 

"I would have kissed you, you know," Gilbert mumbled nervously. 

 

"I beg your pardon?" Anne gasped, shocked. Gilbert mistook this as a sign of disgust on Anne's part and panicked, looking for a way to escape this as swiftly and cleanly as possible. 

 

"I-in the game, I mean." he stuttered quickly. "And I certainly would not have started chanting like Billy Andrews,"

 

When Anne recited the entire conversation to Diana on their walk home from school, she decided to be disgusted and appalled at the idea of kissing Gilbert. She also had decided by this time that the queer, fuzzy feeling in her stomach was actually her body being so repulsed by what he had just said that it made her feel physically sick. In the moment, however, she had not yet made up her mind, and was quite lost for words. He was not teasing her. He was not wearing the usual smirk he had when he was trying to get a reaction out of her. What did he expect her to reply with?

 

Anne's saviours came in the form of Diana Barry and Ruby Gillis, who had decided not to continue playing Spin the Bottle (Diana out of guilt over leaving Anne by herself, and Ruby over lack of Gilbert) and had walked through at that exact moment. Diana was surprised to see Anne and Gilbert together, considering all of the things that Anne said about him in their private conversations. She knew that there was no truth to them, of course, but she had never expected them to be so friendly. Ruby was confused as to why Gilbert was not trying to finish his book. As Anne told her later, he had asked her a question about croup, since she knew a lot about it. It was not  _exactly_ a lie, and it saved Ruby an afternoon of hysterical crying, so it could hardly be counted as a sin. 

 

"We were just going to go outside," said Diana smugly, eyeing the two of them together. 

 

Anne, who had previously felt sure she would never speak again, managed to choke out a response. "I'll come too!" she said enthusiastically, grateful for her escape from answering Gilbert's impossible statement. She rushed outside with Diana and Ruby, leaving Gilbert in the classroom alone.

 

He banged his head against his desk.  _Well done, Blythe,_ Gilbert thought to himself.  _You are officially the stupidest boy on Prince Edward Island._


End file.
